Each page in an Oracle Application Express application contains one or more regions. Regions function as containers for content. This section explains how to create and manage regions.
To create a region in Page Designer:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears. Note the Gallery at the bottom of the page. Pass the cursor over a control or component to view a tooltip that describes it.
From the Gallery select a region and drag it to the appropriate location in Grid Layout.
Based on the region type, Page Designer indicates what actions are required next.
The Messages tab displays a red or yellow badge indicating messages you need to address. The Message tab displays two types of messages
Errors - Error messages display in red. Selecting an error message displays the associated attribute in red in the Property Editor. You must address errors before a page can be saved.
Warnings - Warning messages display in yellow. Selecting a warning message displays the associated attribute in yellow in the Property Editor. You must address errors before a page can be saved. Note you can save a page without addressing warning messages.
View all attributes in the Property Editor. Select Show All from the Property Editor Menu.
Edit the appropriate attributes in the Property Editor.
Required attributes display a red triangle in the upper left corner next above attribute label.
Tip:
To learn more about an attribute, select the attribute in the Property Editor and click the Help tab in the center pane.Click Save.
A region is an area of a page that serves as a container for content. This section explains how to alter the appearance of a page by editing region attributes.
To edit region attributes:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears.
Select the region in the Rendering tree or Grid Layout.
The Property Editor displays attributes for the region.
View all attributes in the Property Editor. Select Show All from the Property Editor Menu.
Edit the appropriate attributes in the Property Editor.
To learn more about an attribute, see field-level Help. See "Viewing Field-Level Help."
Click Save.
When you create a region, you can specify its position by editing the Layout, Position attribute in the Property Editor. The template positions defined within the current theme for the page's user interface determine the available selections.
In addition to the body content of a region, you can specify additional HTML to be placed above and below a region by editing the Header and Footer attributes in the Property Editor.
For all report regions, the substitution string #TIMING# shows the elapsed time in seconds used when rendering a region. You can use this substitution string for debugging purposes.
For classic report regions, the region footer supports the following substitution strings:
#ROWS_FETCHED# shows the number of rows fetched by the Oracle Application Express reporting engine (the page size). You can use these substitution strings to display customized messages to the user. For example:
Fetched #ROWS_FETCHED# rows in #TIMING# seconds.
#TOTAL_ROWS# displays the total number of rows that satisfy a SQL query used for a report.
#FIRST_ROW_FETCHED# and #LAST_ROW_FETCHED# display the range of rows displayed. For example:
Row(s) #FIRST_ROW_FETCHED# through #LAST_ROW_FETCHED# of #ROWS_FETCHED# displayed
You can use the Customization attribute to control whether display attributes in a region can be customized by users. To use this feature, you must include the #CUSTOMIZE# substitution string in the Header, Body, or Footer section of the page template.
If at least one region supports end-user customization, a link called Customize appears wherever you include the #CUSTOMIZE# substitution string in the page template. When users click this link, a window appears, enabling them to display or hide regions on the page.
See Also:
"Creating Custom Themes"To enable end-user customization:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears.
Select the region in the Rendering tree or Grid Layout.
The Property Editor displays attributes for the region.
Click the Collapse All icon and then select Show All from the Property Editor Menu.
Expand Customization. From Customizable, select one of the following:
Not Customizable By End Users
Customizable and Not Shown By Default
Customizable and Shown By Default
Click Save.
This section describes the advantages of using region caching to improve the performance of static regions.
Tip:
Region caching is not available for interactive report regions.See Also:
"Managing Page and Region Caching" in Oracle Application Express Administration GuideEnabling region caching is an effective way to improve the performance of static regions such as regions containing lists that do not use conditions or regions containing static HTML.
When you enable region caching, the Application Express engine renders a region from a cached (or stored) repository instead of rendering it dynamically. Keep in mind that the actual session identifiers are not cached. Instead, the Application Express engine caches a &SESSION. substitution string and the current session rendering the cached region is substituted on display. For example, if a region contains a link and the link includes a session, the exact session is not cached to ensure that the links works for all sessions.
The Application Express engine only renders a region from cache if it meets the defined condition. Additionally, regions can be cached specific to a user or cached independent of a user.
See Also:
"Server Cache"To enable region caching:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears.
Select the region in the Rendering tree or Grid Layout.
The Property Editor displays attributes for the region.
Click the Collapse All icon and then select Show All from the Property Editor Menu.
Expand Server Cache. From Caching, select one of the following:
Disabled - Content is not cached and computed for each request.
Enabled - Content is cached and utilized by all users.
Cached by User - Content is cached specifically for each user.
Cache by Session - Content is cached specifically for each session.
Cache Timeout - Displays if you select you select Enabled or Cached by User. Select how long a cached page is valid. Subsequent page requests do not utilize the cached page if the timeout expires.
Type - Specify a condition. If the condition returns true, the page is displayed from cache. If the condition returns false, the page is rendered dynamically and is not retrieved from cache.
Click Save.
Specifying a static region ID is useful when creating custom JavaScript or cascading style sheets. You can use the Static ID attribute on the Edit Region page to uniquely identify a region. You can then reference the region using the #REGION_STATIC_ID# substitution string in a region templates, the header, the footer, or the body.
A static region ID is included by assigning it as an HTML element ID to the region container object (that is, the table or DIV). The ID of an HTML element must be unique for the entire page. For example, to keep the page HTML valid you cannot have a button and region with the same ID.
To specify a static region ID:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears.
Select the region in the Rendering tree or Grid Layout.
The Property Editor displays attributes for the region.
Click the Collapse All icon and then select Show All from the Property Editor Menu.
Expand Advanced and locate Static ID.
In Static ID, enter the static ID for this region. If defined, this is used as the ID for the region, using the substitution string #REGION_STATIC_ID#, which can be useful if developing custom JavaScript behavior for the region. If this is not defined, the region generates an internal ID.
Tip:
The template must include the #REGION_STATIC_ID# substitution string, in order for the region to utilize the static ID entered.Click Save.
Use the Region Image and Image tag attributes to add an image to the upper left side of a region.
To add a region image:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears.
Select the region in the Rendering tree or Grid Layout.
The Property Editor displays attributes for the region.
Click the Collapse All icon and then select Show All from the Property Editor Menu.
Expand Advanced and specify the following:
Region Image - Enter a reference to an image that displays in the upper left of the region. There is no control over the table tag used to display this image.
Image Tag Attributes - Enter image tag attributes included in the image HTML. This can be used for attributes such as height, width or image ALT text (if the image is non-decorative).
If no ALT is defined in the image tag attributes, Application Express defaults to rendering the image as a decorative image, for example with an empty ALT tag.
Click Save.
Region Display Selector region enables you to include show and hide controls for each region on a page.
To create a Region Display Selector:
Create the page and regions to be included in the Region Page Selector.
For each region to be included in the selector, select Yes for the Region Display Selector attribute. See "Managing Regions in Page Designer."
Create a region of type Region Display Selector.
From the Gallery select the region type Region Display Selector and drag it to the appropriate location in Grid Layout.
Edit the region attributes in the Property Editor:
Click the Collapse All icon and then select Show All from the Property Editor Menu.
Expand Identification and edit the Title.
Expand Advanced and select Yes for Region Display Selector.
Click Save.
Note:
You cannot copy a Tree region since this type of region encompasses more than one region.To copy a region:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears.
Right-click the region in Grid Layout and select Copy To and select a destination from the submenu.
Tip:
To copy a region to another page, select the region in the Rendering tree, right-click, and select Copy to Other Page. Follow the on-screen instructions.To delete regions:
Navigate to the appropriate page in Page Designer. "Viewing a Page in Page Designer."
Page Designer appears.
Select one or more regions in the Rendering tree.
Right-click and select Delete.
Click Save.